Chainsaw Populism: Favorite for Sunday’s Argentina Election, Javier Milei Wants to Take Down the Corrupt, Inefficient State Apparatus
Argentina, under the leftist and globalist Peronist rule of Alberto Fernandez, has sunk into a mess of hyperinflation and economic decay the likes of which the South American had never seen before.
Even though Fernandez has turned his once-proud nation into a shadow of what it once was, with an astonishing poverty rate of over 40%, he is treated by the leftist and globalist media as the sensible and acceptable option in the figure of his – wait for it – economy minister Sergio Massa. Yes, you read it right.
The right wing opposition, as usual, is maligned in the world press as ‘far right’, ”reactionary’ and other political bad words. But Javier Milei is not your run of the mill conservative, either.
The self-described ‘anarcho-capitalist’ is a former rocker who is loud and in your face, and if his message seems radical, it’s because the situation in Argentina has reached peak crisis and really needs an intervention.
You may be used to hear about ‘belt tightening’, or ‘trimming’ waste, but Milei vows to ‘attack the system with a chainsaw’. He totes a power tool at events ‘projecting defiance and strength to disaffected Argentines’.
The people support Milei’s crusade ‘to shred the bloated state’ and what he calls ‘the political caste’.
Polls show him winning a presidential vote Sunday and going to a runoff next month.
Associated Press reported:
“’The caste is trembling!’ he yelled while brandishing a chainsaw spewing diesel fumes on a crowded street last month. In the poor, northwestern province of Salta last week, his caravan was welcomed by a group of workers waving their own buzzing chainsaws in the air.
Argentina’s economy has been engulfed in crisis for years, but lately people feel they are being pushed to the brink: Inflation has rocketed into the triple digits, poverty is soaring and a rapidly depreciating currency is decimating the purchasing power of salaries.”
Milei’s Chainsaw Plan is to slash public spending, ‘scrap half the government’s ministries, sell state-owned companies and eliminate the central bank’.
“In a television interview in March, Milei explained that his Chainsaw Plan was ‘all about tightening the reins on the spending of corrupt politicians’. He has pointed to his strongest electoral competitors as embodiments of a parasitic establishment that has long considered itself beyond reproach or reckoning, and presented himself as the man to cut it down to size.”
Milei’s chainsaw is peaceful, says Sebastián Borrego, a 51-year-old voter who attended his rally. It’s a tool, like those he uses in his own garden.
“’Pruning is a part of what it means to bring about transformation in the country … cutting off parts that aren’t useful’, said Borrego.”
Argentina was shocked by the Milei primary win, a libertarian outsider who has pledged to dollarize the economy, abolish the country’s central bank.
Milei is often compared to former U.S. President Donald Trump or Brazil’s ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro, which is designed to tarnish his image, even though they are both very popular leaders.
CNBC reported:
“His main rivals are current Economy Minister Sergio Massa, who represents the ruling Union por la Patria coalition, and former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich from the center-right Juntos por el Cambio coalition.
[…] The purchasing power of the South American nation has been ravaged by an annual inflation rate of 138%, while two in five Argentines now live in poverty and key agricultural areas have been hit by a historic drought.”
The race is unlikely to be decided this weekend. Instead, the top two candidates from Sunday’s vote will decide in a runoff vote on Nov. 19.
“For a candidate to win outright on Sunday, they must obtain more than 45% of the votes or over 40% with a more-than 10-point lead over the second-place candidate. The winner of the vote will govern for the next four years, through to the end of 2027.”
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